Trump Doesn't Rule Out Ghislaine Maxwell Pardon

President Trump declined to rule out the possibility of pardoning Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell on Friday, telling reporters he hadn’t thought about it but was “allowed to do it.” As Maxwell met for a second day with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump shifted focus to other Epstein-linked figures, including Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and several unnamed hedge fund executives, saying, “I’ll give you a list.”

“It’s something I haven’t thought about it. I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about,” Trump told reporters when asked about a pardon or clemency for Maxwell.

“I certainly can’t talk about pardons,” he later added, while leaving the White House for a trip to Scotland.

When questioned on the Maxwell-Blanche meeting, Trump told reporters they should be focused on other Epstein associates and other topics, including the release of documents related to former President Obama and the investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election.

“I don’t know about the meeting. I know it’s taking place, and he’s a fantastic man. He’s a great attorney,” Trump said of Blanche.

“And people should really focus on how well the country’s doing, or they should focus on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama led a coup, or they should focus on the fact that [former Treasury Secretary] Larry Summers from Harvard, that [former President] Bill Clinton, who you know very well, and lots of other friends, really close friends of Jeffrey [Epstein] should be spoken about.”

“They don’t talk about them, they talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy,” he added.

Trump later suggested he has a list of people who were associated with Epstein, other than him, that he could give to the media.

“You should focus on Clinton … the former president of Harvard; you should focus on some of the hedge fund guys, I’ll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein. I sure as hell didn’t,” he said.

The president said twice that he didn’t want to talk about a pardon for Maxwell. And, he insisted that he never went to Epstein’s private island. He then continued to name others he thinks were associated with Epstein.

“You ought to be speaking about Summers, you ought to be speaking about some of his friends that are hedge fund guys. They’re all over the place. You ought to be speaking to Bill Clinton who went to the island 28 times. I never went to the island,” Trump said.

The Trump administration is facing increasing pressure to release more information from the Epstein files after the Justice Department earlier this month released a memo concluding Epstein died by suicide and did not keep a client list. Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously said such files were on her desk.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Bondi told Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in files related to Epstein.

The memo led to massive outrage from within the Republican Party. While the White House has tried to move on and distract from it and Republican leaders have tried to contain furor among GOP lawmakers, calls for the release of more Epstein-related materials have only grown.

Following Blanche’s trip to Tallahassee, Fla., to meet with Maxwell on Thursday, an attorney for Maxwell said she had a “very productive” meeting and that she “answered every single question.”

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in connection with Epstein in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. She is currently appealing her conviction to the Supreme Court. Epstein died in jail awaiting trial on related charges in 2019.